The Earliest Sunset of the Year

The most common misunderstanding about midwinter is that the shortest day is also the day it gets dark earliest. It is not, and the gap is wide enough to notice: in London the earliest sunset of the year falls around 13 December at 15:52, more than a week before the winter solstice, while the latest sunrise does not arrive until around 30 December at 08:07. The panel above works the same three dates out for the place you have chosen.

Three dates, not one

Midwinter has three turning points and they fall on three different days. The evening turns first: sunset stops moving earlier and starts moving later. Then the length of the day itself turns, at the solstice. The morning turns last: sunrise stops moving later. In London 17 days separate the first turn from the last, with the solstice roughly in the middle.

For those two and a half weeks the two ends of the day move in opposite directions. The evenings are already drawing out while the mornings are still drawing in. If you have ever had the feeling that the light turned before Christmas, you were right — but only at one end of the day.

Why is the earliest sunset not on the shortest day?

Because solar time drifts against clock time. Solar noon — the moment the sun stands highest — arrives about half a minute later each day in December, and that shift is larger than the daily change in day length near the solstice. So the evenings stop getting darker before the day stops getting shorter.

The drift is easy to see across the autumn. In Copenhagen, on the same longitude story as any city sitting east or west inside its time zone, the sun stands highest at 11:54 on 1 November, at 12:00 on 1 December, at 12:09 at the solstice and at 12:20 by the middle of January. Noon itself moves some twenty minutes against the clock in six weeks, while the length of the day around the solstice barely changes from one day to the next. When the whole day is pushed later faster than it is shortened, sunrise and sunset both move later — and sunset therefore starts arriving later while the day is still getting shorter.

The cause of the drift is the equation of time: the Earth's orbit is an ellipse rather than a circle, and its axis is tilted. Together the two make solar time run up to sixteen minutes ahead of or behind clock time over the year. In December it is moving fastest, which is why the split between morning and evening is at its widest exactly here.

How big is the gap where you live?

The distance between the three dates depends on latitude. The further north you are, the more the length of the day changes from one day to the next around the solstice, and the sooner that change drowns out the drift in solar time. So the window is narrowest near the poles and widest at the equator.

In Edinburgh there are 14 days between the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise. In London there are 17, in Penzance 18, in Madrid 27 — and in Nairobi, a single degree south of the equator, 107: there the earliest sunset falls at the end of October and the latest sunrise in the middle of February. At the equator the solstice barely affects the length of the day at all, and the equation of time is left to decide when it gets dark on its own.

Longitude moves the clock times rather than the dates. Penzance sits well west of the meridian British time is built on, so the sun both rises and sets later there by the clock than in London — but the two turn their evenings within a day of each other.

What it means in practice

For most people the evening is the end of the day that counts: it decides whether you get home in daylight or in the dark. And that end turns early. From the middle of December the afternoons stop getting darker, and by New Year sunset in London has moved ten minutes later, to 16:02. It is not much, but it is the right direction, and it happens while most people still think of December as the dark month that simply keeps going.

The morning gives nothing back over the same weeks. On 1 December the sun rises at 07:44 in London; at the solstice, 08:05; and the latest sunrise of 08:07 does not arrive until between Christmas and New Year. Only in January do the mornings start returning light in earnest — which is also when the total gain in day length starts to be noticeable.

When do the evenings start drawing out?

Immediately after the earliest sunset, though imperceptibly: by New Year sunset in London has moved ten minutes later, to 16:02, and by the middle of January it has reached 16:20.

Compare that with the return to standard time in October, when the clocks go back an hour in a single night. The whole autumn sense of darkness arriving with a jolt comes from that one hour, not from the sun, which moves by a couple of minutes a day. The sun works slowly and steadily, and it starts working the other way long before anybody notices.

See it for your own place

The dates above are calculated for the place the page is showing, and they shift by a day or two from year to year, because the calendar year and the solar year are not the same length. The minimum is also flat: in London the five sunsets from 11 to 15 December fall within eight seconds of each other, and which of those days gets called the earliest depends on which model you ask — two independent ones name adjacent days here. That is why the text says «around», and why the number that matters is not the date but the fact that the evening turns a week and a half before the solstice. To follow the two ends of the day as they move, see sunset today and sunrise today, and when it gets dark for how long it takes after sunset before it feels dark.

Frequently asked questions

When is the earliest sunset of the year?

In London around 13 December, at 15:52 — more than a week before the winter solstice. The date shifts from town to town: Penzance shares it, Edinburgh is two days later, and the further north you go the closer it creeps to the solstice.

Why is the earliest sunset not on the shortest day?

Because solar time drifts against clock time. Solar noon — the moment the sun stands highest — arrives about half a minute later each day in December, and that shift is larger than the daily change in day length near the solstice. So the evenings stop getting darker before the day stops getting shorter.

When is the latest sunrise of the year?

In London around 30 December, at 08:07. Mornings keep getting darker well into Christmas week, long after the evenings have turned.

When do the evenings start drawing out?

Immediately after the earliest sunset, though imperceptibly: by New Year sunset in London has moved ten minutes later, to 16:02, and by the middle of January it has reached 16:20.